CHAPTER 5

¹Listen to this word that I bear about you as a dirge, O house of Israel.

                 ²She has fallen, no more shall rise,

                     the Virgin of Israel.

                 She is abandoned on her soil,

                     none lifts her up.

                 ³For thus said the Master the LORD:

                     The town that goes out a thousand

                         shall be left a hundred

                     and that goes out a hundred

                         shall be left ten—for the house of Israel.

                 ⁴For thus said the LORD to the house of Israel:

                     Seek Me and live

                         ⁵and seek not Bethel

                     and to Gilgal do not come

                         and to Beersheba do not pass on.

                     For Gilgal shall go in exile

                         and Bethel shall turn into evil.

                 ⁶Seek the LORD and live,

                     lest the house of Joseph flare like fire

                         and consume Bethel with none to quench it.

                 ⁷You who turn justice into wormwood

                     and righteousness bring to the ground—

                 ⁸He makes the Pleiades and Orion

                     and turns death’s darkness into morning

                         and day He darkens to night,

                     calls to the waters of the sea

                         and pours them over the land.

                             The LORD is His name.

                 ⁹He flashes destruction on the strong,

                     and destruction comes down on the fortress.

                 ¹⁰They hated the reprover in the gate,

                     and the truth speaker they despised.

                 ¹¹Therefore, as you trampled upon the poor man,

                     and a payment of grain you exacted from him,

                 hewn-stone houses you have built,

                     but you shall not dwell in them.

                 Lovely vineyards you have planted,

                     but you shall not drink their wine.

                 ¹²For I know that your trespasses are many

                     and numerous your offenses—

                 foes of the righteous, takers of bribes,

                     you pervert the needy’s case in the gate.

                 ¹³Therefore the prudent on that day shall fall silent,

                     for it is an evil time.

                 ¹⁴Seek good and not evil,

                     that you may live.

                 And so may the LORD God of Armies be with you,

                     as you have said.

                 ¹⁵Hate evil and love good

                     and set out justice in the gate.

                 Perhaps the LORD God of Israel

                     may grant grace to Joseph’s remnant.

                 ¹⁶Therefore thus said the LORD,

                     the God of Israel, the Master:

                 In all the squares—lament,

                     and in all the streets they say “alas.”

                 And they shall call the farmer to mourning,

                     and to lament, those expert in weeping.

                 ¹⁷And in all the vineyards there is wailing

                     as I pass in your midst, said the LORD.

                 ¹⁸Woe, who long for the day of the LORD!

                     Why should you need the day of the LORD?

                         It is darkness and not light.

                 ¹⁹As a man flees from a lion

                     and a bear blocks his way,

                 and he enters the house

                     and leans his hand on the wall,

                         and a snake bites him.

                 ²⁰Why, the day of the LORD is darkness and not light,

                     pitch black, and no radiance in it.

                 ²¹I hate, I spurn your festivals

                     and smell no fragrance in your convocations.

                 ²²Should you offer up to Me burnt offerings

                     or grain offerings, I will not accept them;

                         nor will I look on the well-being sacrifice of your fatted calves.

                 ²³Take away from me the noise of your singers,

                     nor will I listen to the melody of your lutes.

                 ²⁴But let justice well up like water

                     and righteousness like a steady stream.

                 ²⁵Did you bring Me sacrifices and grain offering

                     in the wilderness forty years, house of Israel?

                 ²⁶And you shall bear away Sikkuth your king and Kiyyun,

                     your icons, your star gods that you made for yourselves,

                 ²⁷and I will exile you beyond Damascus,

                     said the LORD, God of Israel in His name.